sed with string containing quote in bash script

Asked May 18 '16 at 23:48

Active May 19 '16 at 00:08

Viewed 21 times

I'm trying to replacing some URLs in html files with the following line:

quote="\""
$(cd "$tutorials_dir_ios" && `sed -i '' 's#.png?version=.*$quote#.png#$quote#g' *.html`)

So this is supposed to match an URL like

someimage.png?version=123&some=thing"

and replace the part after .png until " occurs (I need to keep the " as tag closing in the html):

someimage.png"

But I'm getting:

sed: 1: "s#.png?version=.*$quote ...": bad flag in substitute command: '$'

I've tried some variations, also by using \x22 as double quote. This also throws:

sed: 1: "s#.png?version=.*\x22#. ...": bad flag in substitute command: '\'

I should mention that I'm running OS X, where sed has slightly different behavior.

What's the correct way to use a single quote using sed within a bash script? In a shell the same command using just a " works of course.

Update

Fixed using double quotes meanwhile. But this is also not working:

$(cd "$tutorials_dir_ios" && `sed -i '' "s#.png?version=.*\"#.png#\"#g" *.html`)

gives

sed: 1: "s#.png?version=.*"#.png ...": bad flag in substitute command: '"'

edited May 19 '16 at 00:08

asked May 18 '16 at 23:48

benjist

Variables are only expanded inside double quotes, not single quotes. – Barmar May 18 '16 at 23:58
Thanks, though that alone does not seem to be the issue. See the update. – benjist May 19 '16 at 00:09
1

You have too many `#` characters. It's `s#old#new#flags`. Why do you have `#` before the second backslash? – Barmar May 19 '16 at 00:12
Thank you! My eyes are too tired... that was the problem. – benjist May 19 '16 at 00:26